by Yoga goes back thousands of years to ancient India. Hundreds of years later, it is still considered a universal panacea for all ailments.
Over the years, I’ve been persuaded by bereavement counselors to try yoga, oncologists when I had breast cancer, my GP (for everything from depression to osteoporosis) and friends for loneliness – they thought maybe that I would agree. people there.
Every time I would follow their advice, and I would leave a retreat from the discomfort of all the centers except the body, and mostly from all those legs. Feet feel bare, unless I’m attached to a baby.
Last autumn, however, I tried again. My mother died, I was very sad, my cholesterol was high, my blood pressure was unstable. Stress put a knot on my shoulders, stiffened my neck and even changed my way.
I was in blocks of cemented grief, feeling barely able to breathe. My doctor was issuing prescriptions for medication I didn’t want to take. A tablet to help me sleep, others to help me get through the day, something to lower cholesterol, steroids for an unexplained rash.
Even my usual lifeline – walking miles every day – wasn’t working. Tougher measures were needed. This time, the advice to try yoga came from me.
I chose a six-day retreat, without the internet on Silver Island, or Argironisos, a private island in a sheltered channel of the Aegean between Evia and the territory of Central Greece.
I liked it for many reasons, including the comments left by past visitors, who spoke of finding peace and comfort, companionship and companionship.
I liked the structure and opportunities to socialize through two yoga sessions a day and three (vegetable) meals a day, but the free hours in between were just as important to me.
I knew I would need time alone, and I was looking forward to exploring the 60 acres of the island, maybe taking a kayak out for a paddle, finding a remote spot among the olive trees or on top of a cliff to sit and be in my thoughts. Or make friends with the local stray cats and dogs who have found a home at the Retreat.
The island, which has been in the Christie family since 1961, is now owned by Lissa and Claire, the granddaughters of the original owner, Spiro. Lissa was there to meet me and the rest of the group (10 of us, from Singapore, Canada, the US and the UK) at the Oreoi jetty (just over three hours from Athens by road or ferry) for short boat ride. across.
Over breakfast – homemade granola and juices, local honey, fruit, vegan pancakes – Lissa told us a little more about Argironisos. “There wasn’t even electricity or water here when Spiro bought it. There was nothing really outside the house – which had disappeared – the church and the lighthouse – but everyone who came to visit wanted to return.”
The name is a mystery, she said. Some say it comes from a still undiscovered treasure trove buried by pirates and others from thousands of olive trees, whose leaves glisten like precious metals in the golden rays of the sun. Lissa’s favorite story, however, is based on the island’s patron saint, Cosmas and Damian. “They took no payment for their work, so it was called ‘Anargyroi’, which means without money.”
She always focused on the island. Even when she was living and working in London, he was always on her mind. She now lives here with her husband Corne for about half the year, running the retreats from mid-April to mid-October.
Different teachers come for a week or two each, and sustainability initiatives include a solar farm, water harvesting, natural cleaning products and toiletries. Corne and Lissa do all the cooking, with the help of a few friends who go year after year to help them, and sit with guests around the table for meals, family style. “People have made friends here; other people are our friends,” says Lisa.
Three days into my stay, my mother’s cat had to be euthanized back in London. I was inconsolable, but I felt no judgment or shame about needing to cry.
I spent my days feeling only half-present, and yet, as I went through the motions, two hours of early morning yoga, breakfast, a walk, lunch, a walk, two hours of afternoon yoga, reading , meet the others for a drink. and chatting around the firepit before dinner, I began to feel soothed.
Of course, the island played a huge role in this, but so did the yoga. Abby Paterson’s teaching was like no other teaching I have ever experienced. Despite the different ages of our group, and our different abilities, she gave us three programs that suited us all. Her teaching was gentle but progressive. Each class took us a little further, showed us that we could do more.
Twice a day, we would go from our beautiful, white and Mediterranean blue rooms – three in the main house, and three in a separate villa – down paths lined with olive trees and wild flowers to take our places in yoga. dirty (a Sanskrit word meaning “home”). I would arrive a few minutes early to catch a glimpse of the ever-changing seascape.
Every time the same, every time different.
A wind came upon my face, bringing my mind, which was so often in the past or the future, to where my body was. This; now; this moment.
Abby led us through flow sequences that increased my shallow, barely perceptible breaths, opened up my chest and lungs and carried oxygen and life to my limbs.
Massage balls went under the feet, under the head, under the sacrum. I felt a release of tension in the fascia – the connective tissue that surrounds and supports every organ, muscle, vessel and bone in our body.
We made small movements; reaching for the sky above, reaching for the sea beyond, bending towards the earth below, pointing to the olive trees – symbols of peace.
Continuing, easing from one place to another; to see it as one thing, step by step, making up the whole.
There was beauty in this, a lesson in how life is. We move from chapter to chapter, sometimes thinking one ends before another can begin, when each is part of our ongoing narrative.
Yoga was right. Enlightenment is found by going with the flow.
Xenia Taliotis traveled as a guest at Silver Island Yoga, retreats run from mid-April to early October. Prices start from €1,705 (£1,450) pp, based on two sharing, including all yoga instruction (around four hours per day), three vegetarian meals per day (one of which is five courses) and boat transfer from Oreio. Transport from Athens to Oreio can be arranged at an additional cost.
